GUHSD keeping an
eye on students
By Chuck
Taylor
The Alpine Sun
EL CAJON — At a special presentation held last Thursday,
April 26, members of the Grossmont Union High School District
board were given a demonstration of a new surveillance system that
has been installed at all the of the districts 12 high school
campuses.
The presentation described a total of 285 cameras with
zoom, scan, record and zoom in on subjects have been installed in
all public areas of the campuses including the parking lots. The
entire system costs $2.5 million with funding coming from a
variety of sources including state matching funds and
redevelopment fees.
“We think this means an overall increase of student
safety and campus security,” district Superintendent Terry Ryan
said last week.
It is anticipated that the camera system will pay for
itself over a period of years by reducing graffiti and vandalism
problems.
School police say they’ve already caught students on
tape fighting and stealing.
Terry Kemper, the principal at Grossmont High School,
says the cameras gather valuable evidence.
“If kids aren’t telling us something, and if something
happens that we don’t know about, that’s when we can go back and
replay incidents to solve the problems. What did happen, and how
do we need to follow up?” she added.
During a demonstration of the system, the district
office security office was able to observe all areas of the 12
campuses, including Chaparral, and record any incidents of
interest. The Sony cameras were installed between March 2006 and
last month in high-traffic areas at schools in La Mesa, El Cajon,
Rancho San Diego, Lakeside and Santee. Less-powerful cameras were
replaced with ones that can, for example, zoom across a football
field and read a license plate in a parking lot.
In addition to the district security monitoring of all
schools, each individual campus administrator and community
service officers were able to observe their own campus. They are
monitored during school hours only and are limited to school
property.
Other areas the system will monitor are such
occurrences bullying, drug use and sales, strangers on campus and
the overall well-being of the students.
Ryan said that this system had been his vision for
several years and he was so pleased with the results.
“Being able to remain pro-active rather than just
reactive will assure the communities we serve that their children
are safe, secure and in good hands,” he said.
The system will aid the School Resource officers that
work with students throughout the district. The cost of just one
SRO exceeds the salary of a principal and by utilizing this new
system, officers will be able to observe wide areas of interest
that they could not do before.
El Cajon police Officer Steve Paz, who is based at
Chaparral High School, said the cameras help make his job easier.
“It’s a great deterrent,” he said. “It’s also a good
tool for gathering evidence.”
Grossmont officials said the cameras have aided
investigations of fights, vandalism and thefts.
Ryan spoke of the difficulty in finding funding to staff each
campus with a SRO. The district will be asking each of the
community governments and the county for assistance in funding
these vital positions.
The Grossmont District covers 470 square miles and
serves in excess of 24,000 students.
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